Cheap Car Insurance?

[Goodlife]

We've been looking at various car insurance quotes and cannot quite believe how expensive they are.  To insure our 1999 Toyota Landcruiser in the UK cost around £400 p.a. whereas the cheapest quote we can find for a very similar car (also a 1999 Toyota Landcruiser) in France is €1800 p.a. 

With prices in this range we MUST be looking in the wrong places (we hope!), so can anyone recomend a insurance company they have found to be competitively priced, or perhaps an online car insurance comparison website?

[Sunday Driver]

Try [url=http://www.assurland.com/]www.assurland.com[/url] for insurance comparisons.

 

[Ron Avery]

You will find that the insurance for " foreign" cars is dear as the parts are expensive for repairs, even BMW and Mercedes are more expensive than a comparable French car.  What sort of discount are you getting for NCB?  If you get 50% that is a good price for a gas guzzler.  I hope its diesel because with the price of petrol going up and up it ain't going to do your bank balance much good using that here.

[Goodlife]

[quote user="Sunday Driver"]

Try [url=http://www.assurland.com/]www.assurland.com[/url] for insurance comparisons.

 

[/quote]Thanks SD.  We did!  That's what gave us €1800 as the cheapest quote. 

[Goodlife]

[quote user="Ron Avery"]You will find that the insurance for " foreign" cars is dear as the parts are expensive for repairs, even BMW and Mercedes are more expensive than a comparable French car.  What sort of discount are you getting for NCB?  If you get 50% that is a good price for a gas guzzler.  I hope its diesel because with the price of petrol going up and up it ain't going to do your bank balance much good using that here.[/quote]The €1800 is including a 50% discount.  It's simply staggering the insurance prices over here.  I'm surprised there isn't a stike somewhere to complain about it [;-)].  Might need to re-think the choice of vehicle, but the problem is that modern French cars have a habit of falling to bits after a few years...

[Bob T]

I find insurance for cars and bikes much cheaper here. There seem to be millions of modern French cars on the road and I have not seen any that have fallen to bits, but if that is what you believe then stick with your assumptions and pay out 1800 euros for insurance.

[Rob Roy]

[quote user="Bob T"]I find insurance for cars and bikes much cheaper here. There seem to be millions of modern French cars on the road and I have not seen any that have fallen to bits, but if that is what you believe then stick with your assumptions and pay out 1800 euros for insurance.
[/quote]

Or have an older car, pay less insurance and forget the 'image' [;-)]

[allanb]

€1800 sounds horrendous, even for a Landcruiser. 

Just a long shot: were you asked to state the engine's horsepower, and if so, what did you enter?  The unit of measurement varies hugely from country to country - I have a car with a 1.9 litre diesel engine which the manufacturer describes as "110 hp" but which is officially rated in France as 6 cv, which is the basis of my French insrurance premium.

As I said, it's a long shot, but maybe somebody's computer thinks you have a vehicle with a tank engine in it. 

[Bob T]

That is because your car engine produces 110 Brake horse power, but the tax class is 6 horse power, the two numbers have nothing to do with each other.

[Will]

I think that was the whole point behind Allanb's post.

Cheaper car insurance in France is, I am afraid, a myth - having recently insured a car in England and had a similar one insured in France. I know you get breakdown insurance included in France.

[Sunday Driver]

The original poster will find the CV rating on his/her carte grise so there should be no confusion over its power rating.

For interest, here are the CV ratings for 1999 Landcruisers:

3.0TD manual = 10CV

3.0TD auto = 11CV

3.4V6 manual/auto = 14CV

 

[allanb]

SD: I was assuming (perhaps wrongly) that the OP didn't have a carte grise yet, hence the possibility of error.

Incidentally, is there a source that gives the fiscal 'cv' rating for any given car?  Or would that be giving away one of your secrets?

[Sunday Driver]

[quote user="allanb"]

SD: I was assuming (perhaps wrongly) that the OP didn't have a carte grise yet, hence the possibility of error.

[/quote]

[;-)]

[quote user="allanb"]

Incidentally, is there a source that gives the fiscal 'cv' rating for any given car?  Or would that be giving away one of your secrets?

[/quote]

Check out [url=http://fiches-auto.lacentrale.fr/]THIS[/url].

My mystery is evaporating fast......[:(]

 

[AnOther]

Nice one SD, pleased to discover that my Golf TDI is only 5CV...................[:D]